Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
By Jacob Clifton | Season 1 | Episode 12 | Aired on 08.24.2009
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Totally weird or super-ambitious? Considering the show was renewed after its first airing, I'm going with "awesome in a way we can't tell yet," because anything else doesn't jibe. But I am having a pickle of a time figuring out what's going on. Everything is in a state of confusion! People maybe committing suicide, boys kissing boys like they're girls who do girls like they're boys, hallucinations, Eleanor cries! Tears! I mean it's a mess.
Jackie and Zoey spend the episode keeping Akalitus prisoner in a broken elevator, hoping Victor Garber wakes up so they won't have to deal with the investigation into his coma. He eventually does, but with major chunks of his brain and/or memory missing, so Zoey gets the funk out of there, without even a how-do-you-do to the cutie-pie EMT that's crushing on her.
And then Jackie's double-booked for tonight, because on the one hand she has a date with Kevin to get her new wedding ring, but on the other she has to help Eleanor kidnap her mother, who is also in a coma, but on the third hand she's a huge drug addict and maybe just committed suicide, but on the fourth hand Mo-Mo just found out that Coop's obsessing on Jackie... Right after he takes a picture of himself kissing Mo-Mo in the nurses' station. Half an hour of this kind of thing, people.
Oh! So Eddie spends the episode hanging out with Kevin at the bar, learning all about Jackie's home life and ignoring her panicked, drug-seeking calls, until he eventually gets drunk enough to storm into the hospital and make an ass of himself. The latter scene, while not socially damaging exactly, certainly shakes Jackie enough that without even confirming that the jig is up, she pulls out three vials of something scary from the fake Pyxis and swigs 'em like old Paula, going back to the scene from the beginning of the series, where she's on the floor staring up. Only this time, she hallucinates this weird Camazotz version of her family, sings some Creedence to herself, and then breaks the fourth wall to ask if we've noticed all the rats in the light fixture above her head. And scene. I mean, seriously, what do you do with that?
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Finale time! This is the best show. In the bar this morning, Jackie's complaining about that mean mom from dance class, telling Kevin he's lucky he didn't have kids with her. Kevin's confused and she's like, "I know about you two!" But he points out that they dated for like two weeks when they were sixteen. And then he met Jackie. They talk about how tired she is, and she wonders how to make it up to Grace. Kevin lies and says all Grace will remember is that Jackie tried to protect her. Although he's right that she'll end up in therapy, just not because of dance class.
There's a surprise waiting for Jackie after work, Kevin says, but she has to come to the bar at midnight if she wants it. She giggles about how intriguing it all is, even though she knows exactly what he's talking about: the replacement ring. "Who is luckier than me?" Jackie crows. "Not Jenny Flynn!" Well, almost everybody. As she's leaving the bar, Eddie appears like from an alley or something -- did he lurk all night? -- and heads inside. Jackie's nurse powers get to tingling, but when she turns around there's nobody there. Who's luckier than Jackie? Like everybody. Kevin lets Eddie in, even though they don't open for another hour.
Gloria talks to Victor Garber on his breathing machine, about how much she hates it in movies when people talk to the coma patients, but now here she is, asking him in his coma to sign something clearing All Saints of any neglect or malfeasance. "Just a thought," she says, holding his hand. "We'll talk more when you wake up." Zoey watches this go down, mind blown.
Jackie gets some Tylenol out of the Pill-O-Matic and grumps, "Blow me." Out in the hallway, Gloria pauses getting on the elevator to tell Jackie that she's going to be investigating Nutterman's coma before he goes to ICU. Jackie's like, "Whatever, let me know what you need." Gloria yells that what she wants is Jackie and Zoey's murdering ass in her office in five. Jackie rolls her eyes, and then the elevator goes immediately nuts with Gloria inside. Jackie giggles and thanks Jesus as the alarms go off, and inside Gloria shouts, "UNACCEPTABLE!"
Zoey introduces herself to the prone Mr. Nutterman, inspired by Gloria, and Jackie yells for her, so she closes the curtain and goes back to the nurses' station. Inside the elevator, the phone's not working, so she pulls out her cell phone. Zoey deals with the very busy incoming calls, and Jackie finally looks at her: "What's up with your scrubs?" They're grey. "Yes I can see that. I don't like them." Zoey tries to explain that she also doesn't like them but she's forcing herself to wear them, as a sign of remorse. Jackie laughs. Her ring finger throbs. /p>
Zoey finally gets to Gloria's rolling call and tries to put her on hold, but when she starts yelling -- "THIS IS GLORIA AKALITUS I AM STUCK IN AN ELEVATOR DO NOT HANG UP ON ME" -- she totally hangs up. Jackie asks and she admits, "Mrs. Akalitus. Or not! Think she's stuck on the elevator." They talk about how there's going to be an investigation into the coma, and that probably the elevator repair service should take a little more time than usual in responding. Zoey almost answers the next call twice, before immediately hanging up again. Jackie doesn't meet her eyes; Gloria has a shit fit in the elevator.
Sometimes all you need is a moment of silence: Maybe clarity will come. Maybe something will change. Maybe the problem will fix itself, or new information will come to light and it will turn out you didn't do anything wrong. Or you sit with the problem long enough to see a new angle or find a new word, and it stops being the thing you're trying to escape from. The secret is told, a lightbulb turns on, the guy wakes up from his coma. Sometimes you just have to wait it out in a silent moment and see what happens.
While Eleanor and Jackie are discussing the neuro consult, Coop appears and says they need to talk. She assures him that they don't, while Eleanor doesn't even try to hide that she's watching his every move. "You broke your own finger," he says, and she sighs, and nods, and Eleanor thinks it's just teen highjinks so she laughs as they leave together: Oh my darling, what a wildly entertaining mess you've made.